Heaven Can Wait (1978): A Review (Review #2225)

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1978)

The gridiron meets the Great Beyond in Heaven Can Wait. This first remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan updates the original story. It should also not be confused with a 1943 film of the same name that is a completely different story. Mostly solid performances and an engaging story lift this divine comedy to worthwhile watching. 

Los Angeles Rams backup quarterback Joe Pendleton (writer/codirector Warren Beatty) is on the cusp of taking the top job. He is fit. He is in top form. He connects his passes flawless. He is also dead. His overly eager and inexperienced Escort (codirector Buck Henry) scooped Joe up a bit too early when Joe was hit by oncoming traffic in a tunnel. Joe was scheduled to die on March 20, 2025. Joe, firmly unbelieving that he is dead, is adamant that he nonetheless be returned to his body. Unfortunately, Joe Pendleton was cremated.

This requires that heavenly host Mr. Jordan (James Mason) take up this situation personally. It is surprisingly hard to find a good body to take. Eventually albeit reluctantly, Joe takes on the form of billionaire industrialist Leo Farnsworth. Leo's wife Julia (Dyan Cannon) and his secretary Tony Abbott (Charles Grodin) have just murdered Farnsworth in the bathtub. Julia and Tony, who is her lover, know that Farnsworth drowned, but no one else does. Among those unaware is Betty Logan (Julie Christie), who has come all the way from Britain to make a personal plea to Farnsworth to stop him from building a factory in a small Welsh town.

Owing to a mix of outrage at Farnsworth's murder and the sight of the beautiful Betty, Joe finally agrees to take on Farnsworth's body. Julia literally screams when she sees Leo back from the dead. The household staff are puzzled at how Farnsworth changes in personality. He no longer has an interest in his extensive wardrobe and hats. He also has a mania for football. He also has a growing mania for Betty, who slowly falls for him too.

Not falling are Julia and Tony. They are determined to ice Leo/Joe, especially after Leo/Joe makes clear that he knows they are schtupping and asks for a divorce. Leo now goes the extra mile to get back into football. He literally buys the Los Angeles Rams and decides to be the quarterback. This draws the contempt of the Rams players and exasperation of the Rams coaching staff. One person who does come around to supporting Leo is Max Corkle (Jack Warden). Corkle is the Rams trainer, who eventually is convinced by Leo that he is really Joe. Despite everyone's initial misgivings, Leo proves himself adept at throwing touchdowns.

However, Mr. Jordan pops back and tells Joe that Leo will not be leading the Rams to the Super Bowl. Keeping to their original agreement, Joe's time as Leo is up. Joe essentially asks for an extension, especially since he has fallen in love with Betty. Tony's mastery of the rifle, however, takes care of any extension. Mr. Jordan does have Joe come back to the Rams in a roundabout way. However, will Joe's third form hold up the Lombardi Trophy? Will Detective Krim (Vincent Gardenia) solve Leo Farnsworth's disappearance? Will Max manage to reunite with the right quarterback? Will Betty find a new man who is really the old man?

I think that there is a perception that Warren Beatty struggles with comedy. If Ishtar is the example of Beatty's comedic skills, that perception is very much warranted. Having said that, I think that Ishtar, for all its awfulness, did show that Beatty had a very narrow way of making comedy work for him. The way he could do that was by not being broad. In Ishtar, he could at least make the dimwitted, almost innocent character work by playing him as perpetually naive. In Heaven Can Wait, I would not say that Beatty plays Joe Pendleton as naive or innocent. Rather, he plays Joe/Leo as unaware. Throughout the film, Beatty plays Joe as a man who never fully realized or accepted that everyone around him saw him as Leo Farnsworth. 

Beatty in his performance brought a great sense of charm and eagerness. Joe/Leo/Tom Jarrett was always earnest and guileless. There is when he uses an Exo-Grey Industries board meeting to compare it to a football team. He has already shocked the board members by inviting the press to attend. As Joe/Leo continues, he sees the big picture, which I would call "positive capitalism". Rather than upend a whole community to build a polluting waste site, why not build something that would provide jobs at that community that would be cleaner. He is not opposed to building power plants. He just wants them built where it would be safe to build them. Warren Beatty brings a great enthusiasm in his performance, making Joe/Leo extremely likeable.

Beatty even manages to have a nice bit of droll comedy when he twice enters Julia's bedchamber. Tony continuously runs behind the curtain in an effort to hide. After Joe/Leo tells Julia what he needs to tell her, he then addresses Tony and gives him instructions. Tony, weak-willed as ever, meekly responds to the affirmative. This sequence is never overdone, making it amusing if not hilarious.

Most of the cast similarly keeps to this dry sense of humor. Julie Christie is blessed with being a very beautiful woman, which adds to her humor of the somewhat perplexed but enchanted Betty Logan. She is quiet in her forceful manner early on. As Heaven Can Wait continues, though, Christie brings a charm to the woman who has fallen in love with the billionaire. Once Leo Farnsworth disappears, we see Betty's genuine sadness at the thought of losing him forever. Heaven Can Wait does give her a nice moment at the end when she appears to see that the man she fell for does reenter her life, albeit in a different form.

Charles Grodin was a master at being overtly sleazy in a humorous way. He was campy and exaggerated in Heaven Can Wait. However, that is not a negative. Tony Abbott was meant to be campy and exaggerated in his machinations and total unethical manner. I think that he was better in the comedy than Jack Warden, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for the film. Warden was good as Max, the initially befuddled trainer who eventually accepts Leo as Joe. He has some wonderful individual moments of physical comedy and genuine affection. However, he seemed absent for long stretches, which lessen his impact.

James Mason was the epitome of elegance as Mr. Jordan, who is never flustered or flummoxed by anything going on. He might show mild irritation at the Escort's incompetence and Joe's perpetual rejection of endless potential bodies. However, it is so slight that one figures Mr. Jordan it totally unflappable. Buck Henry has limited screentime and was fine as the Escort. 

I was surprised, after watching Heaven Can Wait, that Dyan Cannon received a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance. It is not that Cannon gave a bad performance. To be fair, I did find it the one performance that I would say was unnecessarily broad and exaggerated. Unlike Grodin, who made his broad manner work for the character, Cannon's broadness came across as too broad, as if she were overacting. She did scream a lot, which was humorous. For the most part, Cannon worked almost exclusively with Grodin. I think that hampered her performance as she was maybe trying to match Grodin's exaggerated manner and didn't quite match up. 

Beatty and Elaine May, who cowrote the screenplay, kept things flowing well and had nice moments. One of them, interestingly enough, was with Dyan Cannon. "I don't frighten anyone", Joe/Leo tells Mr. Jordan. He then immediately pops into Julia's view, who immediately screams in fright at the sight of the man she thought dead very much alive. 

Overall, Heaven Can Wait is a nice solid romantic comedy. It is, perhaps now, a product of the late 1970s in the same way that Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a product of the 1940s. In the end, I think people will enjoy the film and should seek out this little slice of heaven.

DECISION: B+

Lorne: A Review

LORNE

How does one make a documentary about someone when the documentary's subject shows no interest in participating in nor in blocking the project? This is the conundrum that director Morgan Neville faced in Lorne. This profile of Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels features someone who not only doesn't particularly want to be seen, but who doesn't seem to know who he is himself. We get in Lorne a most curious portrait of someone whom people talk about, but whom still is a bit opaque at the end.

Narrated by former SNL alum Chris Parnell, Lorne covers the rise, retirement and resurrection of Michaels along with his career. Lorne Michaels is seen pacing Studio 8H as he works on that year's season of the long running sketch series. We see how Michaels is a man of permanent, almost rigid routine. Larry Liberstein, who cleans Michaels' fishtank, literally calls him "a man of routine". Curiously enough, one of those routines is to never start a meeting when it is scheduled. We see in Lorne how a meeting set at 4:30 actually began at 6:37, which is par for the course in Michaels' world.

As Michaels works with various guest hosts ranging from Timothee Chalamet to Ryan Gosling to Emma Stone, we see how Michaels frets over various aspects. We see how the dress rehearsal shortly before airtime is where we see how long all those sketches the various writers and performers have gone through will make it or not.

"We don't go on because we're ready. We go on because it's 11:30", Michaels observes. 

Lorne also chronicles Lorne's early career prior to Saturday Night Live (originally titled NBC's Saturday Night). The young Canadian born Lorne Lipowitz had his own sketch comedy show in the Great White North, The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour on the CBC. Michaels had already ventured into the United States, writing for Here's Lucy and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. A major break was working with Lily Tomlin, who was instrumental in building up his career.

Lorne covers his various routines for Saturday Night Live hosts, like taking them and the cast/writers to dinner at the same restaurant he's taken all his guest hosts. We see how he walked away from Saturday Night Live for a few years. We see how his attempts to create a new show called The New Show bombed. We see how his return to SNL led to an even worse Season 11 (which I think he called the worst season). After that, however, Saturday Night Live started course correcting. Michaels was ruthless in firing flaying cast and writers, which he had been reluctant to do before. In Season 12, he brought in Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks (with Jon Lovitz surviving the purge). 

He reflects on some of the notorious moments, commenting that few people remember that a very good comedy sketch called Sweet Jimmy, The World's Nicest Pimp followed Sinead O'Connor's then-scandalous musical performance where she ripped the Pope's picture and declared, "Fight the REAL enemy". SNL cast members past and present all talk about working with Michaels. Of particular note is a roundtable with Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg and John Mulvaney. They talk about the pressures of writing and performing. They, along with Carvey and via archival footage from Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, show how they impersonated Michaels as a rather stiff figure.

I confess that I have not seen Saturday Night Live in years. I'm going to walk that back slightly. I did see parts of a 2024 season episode because Stevie Nicks was the musical guest. Apart from that, I could not name a current SNL cast member to save my life. The best that I could do today is I could identify the Weekend Update hosts of Michael Che and Colin Jost. For myself, I see Saturday Night Live the same way I see Dave Matthews Band: something I enjoyed while in college but haven't really cared for since.

One of the curious elements about Lorne is that in the end, Michaels is still a mystery. If one wants to see why Michaels runs, we do not see it in Lorne. I put that down to how Michaels really does not seem interested in being in front. My sense is that Michaels sees himself as a producer but not of much interest. It is interesting to see some looks behind the stern Michaels persona. I think Mike Myers was surprised that Michaels, for all his pressure to not have cast break out of character during the show, actually did exactly that on The Hart & Lorne Terrific Hour. 

We learn about Michaels' Maine retreat, which he finds restorative. We also learn about his love of blueberries. Lorne gives us bits here and there. Overall, though, Lorne Michaels still seems a bit of a shadow. Early on, Michaels comments that comedy is like pornography, you know it when you see it.

Lorne is not a bad film. It is, I would say, more of an inaccessible one in so much that the subject himself is inaccessible. I found Parnell's narration leaned a bit too much in the faux-serious tone, as if he thought his narration would sound dry and witty when it did not. I also found that once the animation segments that covered such things as Michaels' pool construction during his hiatus or his battles with network executives faded, Lorne became better.

One does, to be fair, learn a bit about what it is like to work for Michaels and on Saturday Night Live. We see how the writers work all through the night and essentially sweat it out as they go into the various proposed sketches. We learn that Michaels did have a bit of a stubborn streak early on. A sketch about Bees early on bombed. Michaels kept bringing back the Killer Bees despite network objections. Eventually, audiences embraced the oddball characters.

Again, after finishing Lorne, I did not learn much if anything about Lorne Michaels, the man. Well, I did learn that he keeps fish in his office. Lorne is best for those who genuinely care and are passionate about Saturday Night Live minutia. Apart from that, I think people should stick to watching the 2024 film Saturday Night if they want any insight, even fictional, into the longstanding ruler of late-night comedy.

DECISION: C+

Storm Warning: A Review

STORM WARNING

Warner Brothers was the studio that dared. It took on tough topics. At a time when most other studios were either ignoring or avoiding tense subjects, Warner Brothers dove right in. They dared to make Confessions of a Nazi Spy before we entered the war. After the war, the studio took on a domestic terrorist organization with Storm Warning. While the film did water down somewhat the evil elements that make up the Ku Klux Klan, Storm Warning still has enough of its demonic nature to make it work both as a drama and time capsule of its malevolence. 

Fashion model Marsha Mitchell (Ginger Rogers) is on her way to a fashion show when, by luck, her route takes her through the small town of Rock Point. This is where her sister, Lucy Rice (Doris Day) now lives with her new husband, Hank (Steve Cochran). Marsha opts to leave the bus early and stay overnight as a surprise visit. Marsha could not have picked a worse time to show up.

Rock Point is a wildly unfriendly town, full of terrified citizens who won't help her in any way. The depot hurriedly closes. The taxi driver brusquely refuses to take her anywhere. The burger joint where the obnoxious taxi driver is at also closes long before the official closing time. Marsha is forced to walk to the Recreation Center where she knows Lucy works. On her way, Marsha sees a mob breaking into the County Jail and then is horrified to see that mob kill a man. Fortunately, she managed to hide throughout the ordeal and makes it to the Rec Center. Lucy is delighted to see her older sister. She also thinks that the dead man was Walter Adams, an out-of-town reporter looking into the actions of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Lucy is not oblivious but also keeps to herself, more interested in her upcoming baby than on murders on the streets. One person who is not oblivious is town prosecutor Burt Rainey (Ronald Reagan). He knows that the KKK is behind this killing. He knows that the townspeople are either willing participants or terrified onlookers to their actions. He also knows that no one will come out publicly against them in Rock Point. Marsha herself may not tell what she knows when she finally meets Hank. He is one of the two men who unmasked themselves unwittingly in front of Marsha. 

Marsha is conflicted. Lucy initially believes Hank's story that he was coerced into participating. Marsha attempts to leave town, but Rainey learns she might be a witness. Her efforts to dodge his inquiries backfire, forcing her to stay and testify at the public inquest. That, however, ends up backfiring on Rainey when Marsha opts to protect Hank in a misguided effort to protect Lucy. All that ends up backfiring on everyone when Hank and Imperial Grand Wizard Charlie Barr (Hugh Sanders) abduct her to try to force her to stay quiet. It's an ultimate showdown where not everyone will live to see the sunrise.

I was surprised by much of what Storm Warning built. It was, if not brave, at least a step in the right direction to show the Ku Klux Klan in film at all. A section of Storm Warning has Hank, after his court win, attempt to violently assault Marsha. You also had a very strange section at the end where Marsha is literally whipped at the massive Klan rally. 

One of the most shocking moments in the film is when Lucy is killed by Hank. Even now, it is still shocking to see Doris Day shot. It is a credit to both Day and Ginger Rogers that this scene never slips into exaggerated farce. Instead, this is a deeply moving and tragic moment, underscoring how even the most innocent are sometimes caught up in awful circumstances.

Storm Warning is a showcase for Doris Day as a dramatic actress. Day was still early in her film career and had made only one dramatic film before Storm Warning. Even in that prior film, Young Man with a Horn, she played a singer. This is the first film in Day's filmography that was a straight drama. Day is still working her way through to playing drama. There is a bit of a rushed manner to some of her scenes, as if she is trying to hide her nervousness by speaking faster than others. However, in Day we see Lucy's genuine fear and disbelief that Hank could be involved with people who terrorize her community.

As a side note, in the scene where Marsha is assaulted, Hank takes a few swipes at Lucy when she defends her older sister. Given Day's real-life experiences with domestic abuse, one can only marvel at how she got through those scenes. Those who know that her first husband beat her and even attempted to induce a miscarriage through physical violence must have chills at this Storm Warning sequence. 

Storm Warning also is a showcase for the other actors. Ginger Rogers may have won a Best Actress Oscar for her turn in Kitty Foyle. However, I think most people then and now still identify her as a great musical/comedy performer. Storm Warning shows that Rogers was very much capable of a dramatic performance. Rogers goes through various emotions ranging from confusion to terror to conflicted to deeply grieved. She shows herself to be someone of exceptional range as an actress.

Ronald Reagan's acting career is now colored through political lenses. People who hate his Presidency may dismiss him as an actor. Storm Warning shows Reagan to be competent. I would not call him among the greatest actors. However, Reagan in Storm Warning shows a likeability and moral certainty as Burt Rainey. I found his performance to be very relaxed and casual, edged with cynicism about how the town either cowered to or collaborated with the KKK. He has a strong scene with Rogers when Rainey is questioning Marsha, showing that her efforts to avoid naming those involved went instead in his favor. Steve Cochran did well as Hank Rice. It was a wise decision to not make Hank either sympathetic or truly monstrous. Instead, Cochran, directed by Stuart Heisler, played Hank as both a killer and a frightened man. 

Daniel Fuchs and Richard Brooks' screenplay at times was a bit heavy-handed, such as when Rainey explains how Rock Point's mix of indifference and fear has emboldened the Klan. Storm Warning has been criticized also for skimping on its racism, xenophobia and antisemitism. Walter Adams, who is white, is killed for reporting against them. There is little to no mention of the KKK's violence towards minorities, Jews or Catholics. However, that any film, let alone of this era, was willing to take on the Klan is something that should not be dismissed.

Stuart Heisler does have some wonderful visual moments in Storm Warning. There is when Hank assures Imperial Wizard Barr that Marsha will leave town tonight. The scene is mostly in the dark, making their conversation more sinister. 

I do think that Daniele Amfitheatrof's score was excessively dramatic to where it could come off as farce. 

Storm Warning may not have shown just how evil the Ku Klux Klan are. That being said, the film itself does not shy away from its dangers while not shortchanging the story of sisterly bond put to the test. Storm Warning has fine performances from its cast and a fast-moving and engaging story. On almost every level, Storm Warning does a strong job. 

DECISION: B+

The Front Page (1931): A Review

THE FRONT PAGE

Get the story, no matter what. That is the unofficial motto in The Front Page, the first of four adaptations of the play of the same name. While the first remake, His Girl Friday, is probably the best-known version of the story, The Front Page manages to hold its own even if it never fully escapes its stage roots.

Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson (Pat O'Brien) is through with the cutthroat newspaper business. He is cutting out to marry Peggy Grant (Mary Brian) and move to the big city. There, Hildy plans to get into advertising. One person who is displeased about the mere prospect of losing Hildy is his ever shifty, shrewd editor Walter Burns (Adolphe Menjou). Burns is determined to hold onto Hildy by hook or crook, even a combination thereof if necessary.

All the newspapermen are waiting for the big news story of the day. It is of Earl Williams (George E. Stone), an anarchist (and not a Bolshevik as he himself would tell you) set to be executed for killing a "colored" policeman. Williams insists that he is innocent, but both the press and the eager politicians whipping up the Red Menace are fine with Williams pushing up daisies. Burns continuously thwarts Johnson's efforts to leave. Johnson also finds himself as attracted to covering the story as he is to Mary. Things grow complicated when Williams manages a daring escape. That escape is done thanks to the incompetence of Sheriff Peter B. Hartman, better known by the newspaper men as "Pinky" (Clarence H. Wilson). With Williams' seeming escape and both Pinky and the Mayor (James Gordon) desperate to see the case go their own way, only the press can get the story. 

Fortune seems to come Johnson and Burns' way when none other than Williams turns up at the prison press room. Williams had not so much as escaped as managed to get out of Pinky's clutches. More fortune comes Williams' way when a last-minute reprieve comes his way. Unfortunately for Williams, Pinky and the Mayor do their best to hide this information. Johnson and Burns do their best in turn to hid Williams. Who will win out in this battle? Will Hildy manage to escape Walter's various machinations, or does the wily newspaper editor have one more trick up his sleeve to see that his star reporter does not slip into wedded bliss?

The Front Page received three Academy Award nominations for Picture, Director (Lewis Milestone) and Actor (Adolphe Menjou). Whether it deserved to win in any of those categories remains to be seen. However, I think an aspect of The Front Page that still impresses is how the film moved. The film features great camera work, with Milestone moving the camera smoothly and rapid-fire editing. We see this in how for example we see when the pompous and hypochondriac newspaper writer Bensinger (Edward Everett Horton) arrives. We also have very curious camerawork when Sheriff Hartman arrives. The camera goes up and down as he goes up and down.

There is another scene that shows how rapidly technology was evolving from silent to sound. There is a scene at the newspaper print shop that is open and where the dialogue comes through clearly. We see here how The Front Page was pushing what could be both seen and heard on film.

That scene, however, was pretty much the only moment when the Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play was opened up. Almost every part of The Front Page played as if it were a filmed play, with mostly the newspaper room as the setting. There were a few moments where the story did not take place within that space. Those moments even allowed for some clever bits. Burns, having faked a fire alarm, takes Johnson to a bar to discuss the possibility of Johnson covering the Williams case. Here, Menjou and O'Brien have a sight gag where Burns orders two shots. He passes one to Johnson and ostensibly has one for himself. Ever the smooth operator, Burns never actually drinks, but keeps passing his shot glass to an unaware Johnson. 

Later, we see a great shot where O'Brien, in the foreground, is escaping Burns' clutches through a fire escape. In the background, we see Menjou's Burns happily laughing, oblivious to Johnson's narrow escape. Milestone is working to use both sound and visuals to tell the story.

The Front Page also has strong editing when we get, for example, a montage of the various reporters telling their own version of Williams' capture. The details vary in accuracy, some with embellishments, some with flat-out lies. I was surprised at how Milestone used Dutch angles in some sequences, such as the aforementioned one. 

The performances are mostly strong. Adolphe Menjou is a bit broad as Walter Burns. However, that is how the character is: bombastic, arrogant and conniving. "You never me a decent woman. You wouldn't know what to do with a pure girl", Hildy tells his editor. With a chuckle, Walter replies knowingly, "Oh yes, I would". This infuriates Hildy, who snaps, "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!". Menjou was clever and delightfully sleazy. 

I was surprised to find Pat O'Brien as the more upright Hildy Johnson. While I did not think it was a bad performance, I did find it a curious one. It is as if O'Brien was trying a bit too hard to be both moral and desperate for the scoop. Mae Clark in a small role of Williams' alleged moll Molly Molloy was a bit overwrought in my opinion. Mary Brian as Hildy's girl Peggy Grant did not have much to do apart from either looking supportive or looking askance at how Hildy behaved. Edward Everett Horton was fun to watch as the fussy Besinger. His hypochondria, haughtiness and sometimes total cluelessness made him highly watchable.  

The screenplay had some nice in-jokes. At one point, the reporters comment on a previous inmate hanging, that of "George "King" Cukor". At another point, they say that "Judge Mankiewicz" was the one who tossed out garbage. These are obvious nods to director George Cukor and Herman Mankewicz, who would go on to cowrite (or fully write) Citizen Kane, depending on which version you believe. 

The Front Page is fast, clever and zippy. One is well-advised to not believe everything you read in the newspaper. One can believe that The Front Page does well both story-wise and in embracing the incoming technology. 

DECISION: B-

You, Me & Tuscany: A Review

YOU, ME & TUSCANY

Contrary to popular belief, I am not a harsh critic. I judge a film based on what it is aiming for. As such, I found You, Me & Tuscany to be totally and completely serviceable. It is not original or particularly well-acted. However, the film has pleasant, affable (and beautiful looking) leads and is a nice hodgepodge of past romcoms to make it a nice little date movie.

Briana Celeste Montgomery, better known as Anna (Halle Bailey), once aspired to be a renowned chef. She had been a top culinary school student when she dropped out after her beloved mother's death. Now, Anna is floating about life and getting herself into jams due to attempting to pass herself off as the actual owner of places she is merely housesitting at. Anna looks to her friend Claire (Aziza Scott) for help in finding food and shelter. Claire offers her a discount at the restaurant hotel where she works at. Anna also finds Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a nice Italian guy who takes a shine to her. He's into real estate and not the family vineyard business back in Italy.

They share some good food, good feelings, but no cavorting. Impulsively, Anna jets off to Tuscany inspired by Matteo's suggestion that she live her life rather than try and imitate other peoples. Unfortunately, she chose the wrong time to come, as a major festival leaves her without lodging. That is, until she remembers Matteo's empty villa. Desperate, she crashes the villa. Things look alright until she finds an engagement ring in a junk drawer and Matteo's mother and grandmother find Anna in the villa. Comedic hijinks (and lies) lead them to think Anna is Matteo's fiancée.

Now, the boisterous Italian family (and a highly suspicious Grandmama) welcome Anna into the fold. They also hope that Anna will help bring Matteo back home after a falling out. What Anna had not counted on was Matteo's cousin/adopted brother Michael (Regé-Jean Page). They did not hit it off, but in the ways of the world, they soon start finding themselves drawn to each other. Things, already complicated owing to Anna and Michael's growing attraction, grow more complicated when Matteo himself arrives. There is a sibling rivalry between them. There is also guilt from Matteo about his fraught relationship. Who will end up with Anna's heart among the beautiful Tuscan landscape? 

I found You, Me & Tuscany unoriginal. It was a curious blend of other films. It was a bit like The Princess and the Frog minus the voodoo. It was a great deal like While You Were Sleeping minus the head injury. You even had a dash of A Walk in the Clouds and Bridget Jones' Diary within this film. I did not see Under the Tuscan Sun, but I figure You, Me & Tuscany also draws from that romcom too. As I said, I found You, Me & Tuscany unoriginal. That does not mean that I found You, Me & Tuscany awful. 

Instead, I found the film to be harmless, predictable, frothy and sweet. Ryan Engle's screenplay (from a story by Engle and Kristin N. Engle) know that You, Me & Tuscany is essentially cinematic candy. It is not deep. It is not witty. It is, however, simple and built on eccentric situations and cliches. If you watch the film with the mindset that it is just well-meaning, slightly silly romantic comedy goofiness, you will not be disappointed. 

This is the type of film where essentially everyone is in on the joke. Director Kat Coiro features lush Italian vistas, broad performances from the cast and Regé-Jean Page's exceptional torso. No one in You, Me & Tuscany gives what I would call a "great performance". Each performance, rather, is good or bad ranging on how broad to somewhat less broad the character was. Each of the Italian family members were inoffensive if not a bit exaggerated. Stella Pecollo as the loud, bombastic but loving Aunt Francesca and Tomasso Cassissa as the Instagram-obsessed Cousin Enzo were pleasant in their manner. Isabella Ferrari's Mother Gabriella is the closest to lending drama to something as frothy as You, Me & Tuscany. She wants Matteo to return and reconcile with the family. That is about the most drama the film has.

Our two leads work well together. It is nice to see a romantic comedy where both the male and female leads are black and even nicer that such a detail is unimportant. The closest the film comes to acknowledging that detail is in a bit of dialogue between Anna and Michael. Noting their similarities when they first meet-angry, Anna starts by saying, "We're the only two people here..." at which point Michael answers, "Who speak English". It helps that Page speaks it with a beautiful British accent.

No one questions Anna being engaged to Matteo. Michael's family connection to Matteo is explained easily. He's the son of Gabriella's sister and an Englishman who died when Michael was young. Gabriella and her husband later adopted him as a son. Therefore, he is both their son and nephew. I would not call the casting a cinematic breakthrough. I would call it a good example of how diversity can be both an asset and irrelevant to the plot itself. 

Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page work well together. They have a nice chemistry, and both play their parts well given the thinness of the premise. I would say that Page did better as Michael came across as pleasant and sensible. He also had the obligatory shirtless scene where one can enjoy how fit he is. Bailey was a bit more exaggerated as Anna, the constant efforts to keep up the rouse playing a bit broad. That, however, is the character and scenario, so I cannot fault her for being broad when she is in a farce. To her credit, she does have good moments when she talks about her late mother and their dreams to go to Italy when she graduated from culinary school.

I would argue that Aziza Scott's Claire was pushing a stereotype of a loud, cartoonish BFF. Fortunately, she was mostly heard on the telephone, so we did not have to see a lot that performance.

Everything in You, Me & Tuscany points to this being a deliberately cutesy, frothy concoction. Of particular note is John Debney's score, which felt like something I would hear in a Hallmark movie. Perhaps that is a good way to think of You, Me & Tuscany: as a Hallmark movie with a larger budget. It might not be as good as Solo Mio, another love letter to love Italian style released this year. However, overall, I found You, Me & Tuscany a pleasant, inoffensive romp. 

Either that, or it's almost impossible to have a bad romantic comedy if it is set in Italia. 

DECISION: C+

Obsession (2026): A Review (Review #2220)

OBSESSION

I know a couple that has been dating for some time now. They have their cute nicknames for themselves as both individuals and as a couple. They travel together but would insist, if anyone dared to ask, that they are not physically intimate. Apparently, whenever they go out of town on their de facto honeymoons, all they do at night is sing hymns and play canasta. While watching Obsession, I was reminded of these two lovebirds. Granted, there are no otherworldly possessions involved with the couple that I know of (to my knowledge, anyway). Obsession hits familiar horror tropes, and I suppose gives audiences what it wants. It never quite worked for me, though.

Baron, universally known as Bear (Michael Johnston) has yearned for his coworker Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette) for some time. His friend and coworker Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) insists to him to Nikki does not reciprocate his feelings. We get stronger hints that their fellow friend/coworker Sarah (Megan Lawless) does have stronger feelings for Bear. Bear, however, will not be denied his own dream girl of Nikki, or at least denied his chance to pursue a relationship. In efforts to curry favor with Nikki, Bear rushes to buy a crystal necklace to replace the one Nikki just told him that she'd lost. At the shop, he opts to buy not the necklace, but a "One Wish Willow", a novelty item from the 1980s that will do just that. Bear makes his one wish: "I wish Nikki Freeman loved me more than anyone else in the world".

In the classic case of "be careful what you wish for", Nikki now becomes besotted with Bear. He might be happy about that, but he also sees that Nikki at times acts strangely and erratically. She brings Bear's dead cat out of the bag, so to speak. She hovers in corners in a creepy, vaguely demonic way. She lies about her father dying of cancer. She tapes the door to his house, where is now pretty much living in, and does not want him to leave.

Bear continuously insists that Nikki's freaky behavior is not a sign of mental or psychological instability. He keeps asking her to "stop being weird". Being weird, however, does not cover the full extent of Nikki's manner. The culmination of her eccentricity comes when at a boys' night out party that she cajoled Bear into taking her to, Nikki recites an incestuous take on Hansel and Gretel. She then pulls Sarah's chair out rather than let Bear kiss her after a game prompt would make him do that. She concludes by becoming incoherent and attacking herself with a broken beer bottle in front of the horrified partygoers.

Nevertheless, Bear still will not let Nikki go. There is something seriously wrong with Nikki, who whispers to Bear pleas to kill her. The One Wish Willow hotline was no help. Neither are Ian and Sarah, whose lives are as much in danger as Bear's is. Who will live and who will die before this Obsession ends?

I think that a reason why Obsession did not become one for me is that I am not a horror film fan. I do not hate the genre. I just do not get scared at movies. I also, for better or worse, get hung up on details. A major component of Obsession is that Bear calls the phone number on the One Wish Willow box. Desperate to reverse the wish, he turns to said number. I kept wondering how the phone number to a novelty item made before any of the characters would have been born still functioned.

Perhaps this is overthinking things. I will grant that. There were, however, other elements that made me think that Obsession is now becoming the most overrated film of 2026. As much as writer/director Curry Baker might push me to see Bear in a negative light, I couldn't. I did not see him in a positive light. I found him to be a wimp and simp. The first alarming signs when it came to Bear was when he rushed out to buy a replacement necklace. This is not the act of someone in love. This is the act of someone attempting to curry favor with someone (no pun intended). Again, granted it sounds like something the male lovebird I know would do. 

Truth be told, I never cared for the four principal characters (Andy Richter playing a small role of their boss who is also Sarah's father). The acting from all four is mostly flat. I can give a little leeway in that those are the characters. Bear, Nikki, Ian and Sarah are remarkably dull people who speak in pretty much monotones. Out of the four, I think Megan Lawless' Sarah was the most competent. She had a good scene with Bear late in Obsession when she talked about her hopes and fears about getting into an art school. I can also give grudging respect to how Sarah's icing did pop out almost out of nowhere.

I, however, thought everyone else in Obsession was simply awful. I remain permanently puzzled over how Inde Navarrette is being touted as a potential to probable Best Actress Oscar nominee. She was like most everyone else in Obsession: serviceable to a bit exaggerated as Nikki. I think that she was also hampered by Baker's screenplay and directing. Obsession uses a lot of horror tropes that I think ended up backfiring on the film.

For example, we get the dark cinematography, dominated by greys and browns. We get the overtly spooky music, particularly in a montage that is supposed to show the idyllic first few days of the Bear/Nikki romance. However, when it comes to Navarrette, I think it was a mistake to have her appear as this overtly creepy, shadowy figure from time to time. She looked less like a person and more like a hellish creature. Now, I understand that was the intent. For me, though, I think that undercut any genuine terror by staying close to horror cliches. At the scene where Nikki is supposed to move Sarah's chair and demand Bear kiss her, I was not filled with dread. 

I was filled with laughter. 

I was also not overwhelmed with Michael Johnston's Bear. Yes, Bear was supposed to be totally weak-willed and pathetic. However, I thought Johnston made Bear almost comatose and unable to show any true emotion. There does not seem to be any evolution in Bear via Johnston's performance. His constant cries of "Stop being weird" came across as not having just words. They were not demands. They were not pleas. They were just statements.

Cooper Tomlinson was probably the worst of the bunch. While I felt genuine sadness at his fate (I recoil at films that do harm to innocents), he was flat throughout the film.

I watched Obsession with a growing sense of puzzlement over how it is seen as some kind of cinematic breakthrough. It is a second-rate horror film that has bad performances and typical horror tropes. The biggest obsession that I have seen is from Obsession fans. 

DECISION: D+

Ace Crawford, Private Eye: Murder at Restful Hills

ACE CRAWFORD, PRIVATE EYE: MURDER AT RESTFUL HILLS

Written by: Ron Friedman

Directed by: Michael Preese

Airdate: March 15, 1983

Long ago, television had just three networks. They, surprisingly, would not broadcast 24/7. At night, they would sign off, usually to The Star-Spangled Banner. Thus concludes their broadcasting day. Later on, we saw networks offer infomercials before eventually transitioning to eternal broadcasts. Even with all those limitations, it is astonishing that anyone at CBS approved Ace Crawford, Private Eye as a regular series. A television movie, perhaps, but a full series? Murder at Restful Hills, our first Ace Crawford episode, shows that this detective spoof had a sliver of potential but not much else.

Narrated by Toomey (Joe Regalbuto), Ace's eager Guy Friday, we learn of Ace Crawford (Tim Conway). He's the greatest private detective in the world, one so great that someone attempting to stick Crawford up ends up asking for his autograph when he learns whom he's trying to hold up. One person who wouldn't ask for Crawford's autograph is Dr. Sears (Arlen Dean Snyder). He has been murdering residents at the Restful Hills Retirement Home, faking their wills to cash in on the residents. Luana (Shera Danase) is the chanteuse at The Shanty, Ace's main seaside bar hangout. In tears, Luana tells Ace about the seven deaths at Restful Hills. Luana's Grannie, Gretchen Kronenberg (Dolores Albin) is a Restful Hills resident. She fears that Grannie might be the next victim.

Ace goes to Restful Hills to investigate. He first poses as Grannie's grandson. Unbeknownst to Ace, Sears discovers Ace's true identity and is alarmed. Sears and his henchman, Eugene (Tim Rossovich) are terrified Ace will expose them. With that, it's time to bid bye-bye to Grannie. Ace, however, has an ace up his sleeve. He will enter Restful Hills as a new resident, with Toomey posing as his heartless son. Toomey is anything but heartless. In fact, he has to juggle between serving as Ace's eager young assistant and attending his daughter's school play, where he has to play a watermelon. Grannie's life is in danger, but will Ace be able to use his Old Man act to save her and the other Restful Hills residents? Will Toomey make it back in time to save Ace?

After rewatching Murder at Restful Hills, I think it was not as bad as I first remember it. Screenwriter Ron Friedman and director Michael Preece do get some of the film noir conventions. We have Toomey narrate the plot. We have some amusing lines and comedy bits. Near the end of Murder at Restful Hills, Toomey's voiceover narration marks that his accounting job and marriage are suffering from his devotion to Ace Crawford. However, he wouldn't trade it in for be alongside someone who is sometimes called "the Peeping Tom of Justice". Shera Danese's Luana seemed to be completely in on the joke that Ace Crawford was meant as a broad spoof. She did a good job, for example, belting out a tearful version of On a Bicycle Built for Two and being exaggeratedly hysterical over her concerns for Grannie. At the end, her flirtatious manner with the somewhat oblivious but reluctant object of desire.

The problems with Murder at Restful Hills in particular and Ace Crawford, Private Eye in general, however, overwhelm what little good there are in the episode and series. First is Tim Conway as Ace Crawford. There is a wild inconsistency in his character. On one hand, he is painfully unaware of almost everything around him. In the episode, an elderly man is shunted off to the "Therapy Room" by Eugene as Ace and Dr. Sears are walking down the same hallway. However, it never registers with Ace. He is supposed to be confident in his skills, so much so that stickup men all become starstruck when meeting him.

On the other hand, Ace is belligerent and downright mean to the perpetually innocent and eager Toomey. I found it strange that with most everyone, Ace is pleasant and a bit clumsy. With Toomey, however, Ace berates and dismisses him at almost every turn. He seems intensely impatient and sarcastic towards Toomey. Ace Crawford is supposed to be endearing in his bumbling. He is not when dealing with Toomey. When, for example, Toomey eagerly and sweetly describes his daughter's role as a lettuce, Ace displays intense irritation. "You're either going to help me or go play in Miss Wiggins' cabbage patch", Ace snaps.

This might have been a nice in-joke about his past on The Carol Burnett Show. However, it was a terrible mistake to echo that legendary variety show in Ace Crawford. Worse still was when Conway went undercover at Restful Hills. He was doing his Oldest Man routine here. It might have been nice for viewers to see Conway shuffle along in tiny steps. However, performing the Oldest Man bit cut away from making Ace Crawford original. It looked like Conway and company was just recycling old bits.

Yes, the joke is that Ace Crawford is the antithesis of his reputation as a fearsome and shrewd customer. Unfortunately, Murder at Restful Hills never built up a case as to how or why he had that lofty reputation. He does not solve the crime. He more stumbles onto Grannie's attempted murder and leads some kind of retirement home rebellion. There was no actual detective work.

If anyone in Murder at Restful Hills gave a performance, it was Joe Regalbuto. His Toomey was played exactly correctly. He was made into this eager, wide-eyed young man totally enamored with the legend of Ace Crawford. His reciting of his daughter's role in the play was a nice bit. Regalbuto had another nice moment when he almost didn't admit his "father" into Restful Hills, overcome by Ace's fake memories of a happy childhood. Regalbuto played Toomey not as a moron who worships a bigger moron. Instead, he played him as a perpetually naive man. He had one slight disadvantage when he appears in his watermelon costume. It is not so much the costume itself. It is that it reminded me of something Milton Berle once said. You have someone appear in a funny costume. You get the laugh. Then what, Berle asked. You have to go on with the scene with the character in that funny costume. Fortunately, that scene was brief, but it still felt a bit forced.

The other performances surprisingly had little time to build up. I am not talking about Arlen Dean Snyder as Sears or Dolores Albin as Grannie Kronenberg. Albin in particular seemed to be effective as someone else who was in on the joke. Snyder was fine but he never quite got that Murder at Restful Hills was meant to be broad. He seemed to play it straighter, which is an odd choice for a noir spoof. It was the rest of Crawford's crew that got short-changed. Billy Barty as The Shanty's owner/barman Inch and Bill Henderson as blind pianist Mello barely made an appearance. Worse was Richard Christie's Lieutenant Fanning. Billed as "Dick Christie", he popped up at the end and frankly, I do not think that his name was even used. He just appeared, with no rhyme nor reason.

As for Conway, he got the physical comedy bits fine. I think the somewhat contradictory nature of Ace Crawford (bumbling but perpetually mean to Toomey) was a poor decision. Another poor decision was to add a laugh track to things. It ended up emphasizing that a lot of Murder at Restful Hills was actually not funny. I would argue that a film noir spoof that revolves around murdering old people is already a hard hill to climb. Murdering them by having them exhaust themselves on a treadmill does not seem to be any funnier.

Murder at Restful Hills is a poor pilot to begin this now-forgotten series. Had I been a television executive, I would have said that it would not be picked up and urged them to rework it as a television movie. The Peeping Tom of Justice wouldn't catch anyone's eye.

4/10

Next Episode: Bull Bates

It's Dorothy! A Review

IT'S DOROTHY!    

Some literary characters have taken on a life so far removed from their source material. Such is the case with Dorothy Gale, the protagonist of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The documentary It's Dorothy! looks at the various incarnations of this literary character. Using archival footage and interviews with the myriads of Dorothys from stage and screen, It's Dorothy! sometimes stretches some connections more than I think logical. However, it has some interesting background to the lives of the actresses and fans of this distinctly American figure.

It's Dorothy! interviews various actresses who have played the little girl from Kansas, mostly on stage or television specials. There is Shanice Shantay from The Wiz Live! NBC special. There is also Nichelle Lewis from the 2024 Broadway revival of The Wiz, pop singer Ashanti who starred in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz special and Danielle Hope, who won the BBC competition show Over the Rainbow in 2011 to play Dorothy in London's West End. The documentary also has an audio interview with Fairuza Balk, who played Dorothy in Return to Oz. She is the only Dorothy who did not appear on screen but was interviewed specifically for the documentary. Stephanie Mills, who originated the role in the original run of The Wiz, Diana Ross who played the role in the film version of The Wiz, and Judy Garland from the 1939 The Wizard of Oz all spoke about the character and/or Oz-related projects via archival footage. 

Each of the actresses who played Dorothy speaks to her experiences both before and after their casting. For Garland, the two figures of actress and character eventually blended into each other. It is surprising to learn, for example, that initially many objected to Garland's casting for being "too old" for the part. As time went by, Garland became the definitive Dorothy to where every other actress who played the role was measured against her. We see that Judy Garland had excessively high expectations as a child performer. The high price of fame, the dichotomy between the outward glamour and intense hard work is nothing new we learn. Ashanti comments that people see the fame and glitter but not the intense invasion of privacy and long work hours.

The more things change, I suppose.

The other people interviewed in It's Dorothy! were heard but not seen. The various interviewees speak on various topics related to both Dorothy and the Oz mythos. We get how director John Waters thought Glinda the Good Witch of the North was, in his words, "a sadist" for not informing Dorothy that she could leave anytime rather than letting her go through the land of Oz. He adds that Dorothy is, again in his words, "a fag hag" or at least a precursor to one. 

The documentary does cover how the character of Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz in particular became associated with gay culture. It also through the various adaptations of The Wiz delve into how the L. Frank Baum series was co-opted into black culture. 

Director/writer Jeffrey McHale covers a great deal of ground in It's Dorothy! To his credit he did a strong job in giving the various actresses who brought the character to life. As stated, all the living Dorothy actresses save Balk appeared on screen (Ross and Mills not interviewed specifically for It's Dorothy!). Hearing their stories about how fans still remember them and their experiences working on their respective Oz projects is an interesting backstage look.

I do, however, think that sometimes It's Dorothy! bit off more than it could chew. Late in the film, some of the interviewees suggested that the appearance of Wheelers in Return to Oz was a sign of disability empowerment. I think that while disabled people may see the Wheelers as some kind of representation, I do not think that was the intent. It was not just the Wheelers but the various figures who had different parts to them, like Jack Pumpkinhead and Tik-Tok. 

The Wizard of Oz/Judy Garland gay connection has been noted for years. It is interesting to learn that such a connection did not start immediately but built up over the years. The "friend of Dorothy" myth is dispelled in It's Dorothy! with the suggestion that such a euphemism developed over time rather than be immediate. 

The film also could not resist a dig at L. Frank Baum. It does point out that while Baum was a liberal in almost all matters, his editorials calling for the extermination of the indigenous Americans is a black spot on his record. I do not think that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or any of his other Oz books will be pulled from the shelves because he was wildly wrong in that one take. This unfortunate lapse in judgment by Baum is connected to the Wizard himself not being what he was supposed to be. 

Again, this is similar to the Return to Oz take that the various creatures are a subtle sign of disability representation. Some of the connections between the various Oz projects and both its creator and its fans seems to stretch more than I'm willing to believe.  

Still, It's Dorothy! has some wonderful insights from academics, fans and the various actresses who have played the role. We get a nice montage of both Over the Rainbow and The Wiz's Home which are standouts. Both are brilliant songs that have stood the test of time. Seeing various figures like Barbra Streisand to Beyoncé take cracks at them is a wonderful reminder of how good the songs and singers are. It is also good to hear how various Dorothys have been received. Shantay calls her The Wiz Live! experience a "one-and-done" deal with no big bounce to her career. Conversely, Danielle Hope has found a career after winning Over the Rainbow and she was cast in the theatrical version of The Wizard of Oz.

How we see both Dorothy Gale and various interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will shift with the culture. It's Dorothy! is a good snapshot of how both were seen then and are seen now. I am not sure that Dorothy Gale really is, as one person called her, "a bad bitch". It's Dorothy! ends with various people being asked to describe Dorothy Gale in one word. My choice would be "Dorothy Gale is...American". 

DECISION: B-

Bad Day at Black Rock: A Review (Review #2218)

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

What secrets lay buried out in the desert? A lot can happen in one day. Bad Day at Black Rock delves into the underbelly of a small town that will do anything to keep its shameful past hidden. 

The sleepy, small town of Black Rock, California has not had a visitor in four years. Today, though, a stranger comes to town. He is John J. McCready (Spencer Tracy). Who is this one-armed man? Why is he here? No one stops at Black Rock on purpose.

McCready, however, does have a purpose. He is there looking for a man named Komoko. The local men all look on McCready with a mixture of contempt and fear. Local kingpin Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) wants everyone in town to stay silent about Komoko. What secret does Smith want hidden about Komoko? 

Everyone is openly hostile to McCready. Hotel clerk Peter Wirth (John Ericson) attempts to not give McCready a room. Local muscle Hector David (Lee Marvin) tries to intimidate the one-armed man. Weak-willed Sheriff Tim Horn (Dean Jagger) is little help in finding Komoko, let along providing information. Local veterinarian Doc Velie (Walter Brennan) is more sympathetic but has a simple warning for McCready: get out of town. Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) 

McCready, however, is not easily intimidated. He pushes Peter's sister Liz (Anne Francis) to rent out a jeep to visit nearby Adobe Flat. McCready finds a burned-out home and wildflowers, which grow on graves. McCready is a World War II veteran who lost his arm in the Italian campaign. That, curiously, is connected to why he is at Black Rock. The men save for Horn and Velie are determined to keep buried whatever, and whomever, lies out in Adobe Flat. 

As the day goes on, the danger grows. Trimble tries to knock McCready out. Surprisingly, a one-armed man with some karate can knock out thugs. McCready finds himself frustrated in his efforts to reach authorities to come to Black Rock. As the day goes on, we learn McCready's tragic connection to Komoko and Komoko's ultimate fate after December 7, 1941. Not everyone will live to see another Bad Day at Black Rock, but there is still hope for this forsaken town.

Bad Day at Black Rock runs a surprisingly short 81 minutes. In that brief runtime though, the film gives the viewer a full and rich story. The mystery around Black Rock and McCready's appearance (both in town and physically) are slowly revealed. Director John Sturges keeps things flowing smoothly. He also maintains the tension and menace thanks to the isolation. Throughout Bad Day at Black Rock, the film maintains a quiet and sometimes not quiet sense of menace and danger.

We know that the men in town are hiding something. We also know that McCreedy's presence should be cause for alarm among the men. That sense of tension and mystery build up the film. We wonder what will happen. We wonder whether McCready will live out the day. Those elements build up Bad Day at Black Rock as the film delves deeper into the mystery.

The film also has standout performances from the cast. A very good case can be mounted that Spencer Tracy is too old for the part of the grizzled detective/war veteran. Today, I imagine, the fact that a non-disabled man playing a one-armed man would not be met with acclaim but condemnation. This cannot be helped. McCready's lost arm is an important element of the character. It is a credit to Tracy and Sturges that one barely notices how McCready is missing an arm.

Tracy builds up McCready with a mix of confidence and moral righteousness. This is not a self-righteous performance. McCready as played by Tracy is not someone who looks down on Black Rock residents. Instead, Tracy makes McCready into someone motivated by paying a debt and finding impediments every step of the way. There is something rotten in the town of Black Rock, and McCready will get to the bottom of it no matter what.

Robert Ryan has a brilliant performance as Reno Smith. Smith is a rotten man, bigoted, angry and suspicious. He holds power over everyone in town. However, we do not see Reno Smith as a ranting, raving loon. Instead, his power comes from a mostly quiet manner. Smith's menace comes from his control. This is a man not only used to controlling everyone but not used to having anyone question him. Ruthless in controlling his small fiefdom, this Black Rock kingpin will have no one try to usurp his power. Smith's control is such that he can overthrow the weak-willed sheriff with no objection. Ryan plays Smith as efficient and ruthless.

The other actors also do excellent work. Walter Brennan is moving as Doc Velie, the closest thing that Black Rock has to a man of conscience. He and Tracy have a wonderful scene together at Doc's clinic, where he is warned to get out. Dean Jagger also does well as Sheriff Horn, a man who is a paper tiger, but who attempts to make good on his duties. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin were strong as the muscle bent on using brute force against anyone questioning Reno Smith. Anne Frances' Liz is curiously the only woman in the cast. She did well as someone caught in the middle of this new war.

Bad Day at Black Rock has an excellent Andre Previn score. The film also has strong cinematography, capturing the wide desert which builds up menace. Granted, the rear-screen projections at times do look clunky. However, that is a minor point. I do wonder though if a line in Millard Kaufman's adaptation of Howard Breslin's short story Bad Day at Hondo was meant as a pun. As McGready exited the train, someone said, "You look like you need a hand". Again, whether it was meant as a sincere offer to help or a comment about his lost arm, I am not sure.

Bad Day at Black Rock holds your attention throughout its runtime. Excellent performances and an engaging story elevate it to being a standout film. 

DECISION: A-

The Night of the Iguana: A Review (Review #2217)

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Ava Gardner.

Sordid lives seem to be the specialty of Tennessee Williams. What is more sordid than a man of the cloth enduring the temptations of the flesh? The Night of the Iguana is a look inside the raunchy lives of crazed priests and the women who long, lust and guide him through his dark night of the soul.

Episcopal priest T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) has a breakdown at the pulpit when he admits to the whispers of a liaison with a young Sunday school teacher. After having gone bonkers, Shannon is now a lowly tour guide for Blake's Tours in old Mexico. Blake's Tours is the bottom of the barrel in economy tours, and Shannon is the bottom of the barrel of Blake's Tours tour guides. His newest group is a collection of Baptist teachers. They are headed by the fearsome Miss Fellowes (Grayson Hall). She openly detests Shannon.

Her nubile charge Charlotte (Sue Lyon) openly lusts after Shannon. This nymphet is determined to get Shannon. Charlotte takes swims with him, much to Fellowes' anger. It is not until Fellowes finds Charlote in Shannon's room that she has enough evidence to see Shannon out. Whether or not anything actually happened is open to debate. Fellowes will get him fired as soon as they make Puerto Vallarta. 

Shannon, however, literally takes the wheel and drives them to the hotel of his friend Fred. Fred, however, has recently died. It is now run by his widow, the lusty Maxine (Ava Gardner), who is displeased to find this group at her door. The Mismayola beach resort is closed due to being off-season. It also is too intrusive to Maxine cavorting with her beach boys Pepe and Pedro. 

As if this group of Baptist women is not enough for both Shannon and Maxine to endure, they get two more gatecrashers. Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr) and her aged grandfather Jonathan Coffin or Nonno (Cyril Delevanti) are looking for a place to stay. They have no money, earning keep by being a quick-sketch artist and "the world's oldest living poet" respectively. Shannon uses his influence with Maxine to let them stay.

That influence, however, is not enough for Fellowes or Charlotte. Shannon is not technically defrocked, but he probably will be once news of his romping about with this Baptist Lolita gets back to Blake's Tours. This is too much for the unstable Shannon, who falls to drink and general madness. It takes a lot to literally tie him into a hammock for his safety and the safety of others. Now, in this night after the Baptists have left, will those chains set him free? What is to become of Hannah and Maxine themselves, these spiritual and earth mothers to the whacked-out renegade priest?

The Night of the Iguana is probably more symbolic than I care for. It is not subtle when you have the iguana (which Shannon observes to the tour group, tastes like chicken) tied up like Shannon is. You have the push and pull between the brazen Maxine and the intellectual Hannah. 

While I am not big on symbolic work, I think The Night of the Iguana works in its surface story of lusty priests and the women who want him. I will not say that it works perfectly. Anthony Veiller and director/cowriter John Huston could not, for example, ever explain why Hank (James Ward), the younger bus driver could not get the distributor cap that Shannon takes. He was younger, presumably stronger and to my knowledge Shannon did not carry it around with him all day.

To be fair, Hank was not as strong as he might have been. At a bar fight, Pepe and Pedro are able to knock him out while never losing the rhythm of their maracas. Pepe, Pedro and the bar denizens are able to metaphorically and literally beat the Yankee to Las Chiapanecas. Even legendary Mexican filmmaker Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez gets in on the action in a cameo as the barkeep. This section was oddly funny. I figure that it was intended to be. However, it did look a bit peculiar. 

In terms of performances, I think Huston got what he wanted out of his cast. Richard Burton fully embraced the cray-cray of this shamed man. He at times seemed to be determined to go as out there as possible. I grant that Reverend Shannon was meant to be a bit bonkers, so it is not fair to say that he went over-the-top. 

I found Ava Gardner was not acting but being. Her Maxine was oozing Southern bluntness and raw sex appeal. Gardner seemed to find almost everything a lark. Whether it was Fellowes telling Shannon off or vice versa, Maxine loved to be faux scandalized. I did not think that Ava Gardner was great as Maxine. Again, I think she was playing herself, though perhaps not as loony as everyone else in The Night of the Iguana was.

She was not afraid to call things as they were. Maxine at one point flat-out suggested to Fellowes that she was a lesbian. Fellowes, as played by Grayson Hall in an Oscar-nominated performance, was bitchy beyond belief. That suited the character well, this hard, brittle and arrogant figure. Hall made one instantly hate Fellowes even when she was right. 

Deborah Kerr's statelier Hannah was excellent. She has a wonderful monologue near the end about her limited physical experiences that holds your attention. I do grant that I kept looking at Kerr's eyes and wondered if there was something wrong with them. It looked like her right eye was not looking in the same direction as her left. Sue Lyon had the worst of it as Charlotte. This role felt like a variation of her Lolita character.  Here too she was this nubile temptress to an older man. To be fair Charlotte was more willing and aggressive than Lolita's Dolores was.

The Night of the Iguana has a unique feature in Gabriel Figueroa's Oscar-nominated cinematography. Figueroa was a legendary Mexican cinematographer who rarely ventured into American films. This is a standout in his filmography. 

I did think that the film went on a bit longer than needed. Despite this and perhaps a somewhat upbeat ending, I think The Night of the Iguana has more to recommend it than not. You might not find it on Mexican Radio, but The Night of the Iguana works quite well.

DECISION: C+

Foreign Correspondent: A Review

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Joel McRae.

The Second World War was inching towards the United States when Foreign Correspondent was released. Blending suspense, romance, a dash of comedy and a bit of propaganda, Foreign Correspondent might be longer than needed but has enough positives to make it a worthwhile watching.

New York Morning Globe editor Mr. Powers (Harry Davenport) is convinced that Europe is on the edge of a powder keg. He also is irritated that his and other "foreign correspondents" cannot find the story if it walked in on them. Powers is convinced that he needs a crime reporter willing to pound the pavement (and maybe a few policemen) to get the truth. For that, he summons crime beat reporter Johnny Jones. Rechristening Jones as "Huntley Haverstock" (Joel McRae), he tells Jones/Haverstock to get him actual news.

Haverstock immediately falls into a dynamite story. He is tasked to interview Dutch diplomat Van Meer (Albert Basserman). He has been instrumental in attempting to avoid a new European war with knowledge of a major treaty. He is also working with the Universal Peace Party, headed by Stephen Fisher (Herbert Marshall). The elegant, sophisticated Fisher seems desperate to stop any war. He might be better suited in stopping Jones/Haverstock from eyeing his pretty daughter Carol (Laraine Day). Haverstock is instantly smitten, to where he barely listens to anything anyone other than Carol have to say. 

There is however, a most curious thing. When Haverstock reencounters Van Meer in Amsterdam where the final negotiations have shifted, Van Meer does not recognize Haverstock. This is most bizarre since they had literally shared a cab the day before. Things do not get cleared up when someone assassinates Van Meer in front of Haverstock and others. Haverstock's efforts to catch the killer fail despite his best efforts. Those efforts also include Carol and her friend Scott ffollitt (George Sanders) (ffollitt insisting that his surname is all lowercase letters). It looks like despite their chase it is a dead end to find the killer. Or is it?

Jones is on the case. He finds that Van Meer is still alive, with Van Meer's double being the one gunned down. Why all this deception? It is all part of an elaborate plot to not stop war, but to bring it about. Now, Jones/Haverstock is the man who knows too much. Those holding Van Meer prisoner must now stop Haverstock at all costs. These scheming Europeans, however, have not counted on the street-smart American. They also haven't counted on Huntley and Carol falling in love.

Huntley is in danger of falling in more ways than one. There is an inside man in the Universal Peace Party who wants war. This figure thinks that war will save his country. He also knows that Van Meer knows of Clause 27, a secret clause in the treaty known only to two people. Will Van Meer break? Who is the traitor within the Universal Peace Party? Things reach a fiery conclusion once war does begin, but will Huntley's message break through to the American people?

Foreign Correspondent even then was thinly veiled propaganda to persuade reluctant Americans to enter the war on the Allied side. Huntley's final broadcast could not have been clearer had it been spoken by Winston Churchill himself. As bombs fall on London, Haverstock calls on America to "keep the lights on". "Hello, America, hang on to your lights. They're the only lights left on in the world". It is clear that Foreign Correspondent used the espionage angle to show the dangers that Europe and later America were facing.

It also helped that Alfred Hitchcock got the best cast for Foreign Correspondent. Joel McCrae has a breezy manner and a very American attitude towards things. He handles the action and humor with equal adeptness. Johnny Jones is relaxed, even a bit contemptuous of things initially. He is not exactly happy-go-lucky but someone who does not abide falseness. McCrae makes Jones/Haverstock into a man of action and humor. The scene where he is attempting to communicate with a Latvian diplomat is one of wry humor. Shortly afterwards, the massive grin McCrae has when seeing the beautiful Carol shows that Foreign Correspondent is not afraid of making Haverstock look downright goofy if it gets a chuckle.

McCrae does not, however, shrink from action. Several times in Foreign Correspondent do we see Haverstock in danger. McCrae is more than up to the task. Hitchcock teases tension when Haverstock comes close to being discovered in the windmill and when escaping hitmen at the Hotel Europe. Even here though, the various screenwriters (Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison, James Hilton and costar Robert Bechley) manage to inject sly humor. As Haverstock is escaping in his undergarments via the roof, he accidentally knocks out two letters from the Hotel Europe sign. Looking at the high angle (Hitchcock here was fond of high angles), we see that Haverstock is in "Hot Europe".

A good amount of humor comes from Robert Benchley as the Morning Globe's London reporter. Benchley has a droll, somewhat resigned and cynical manner as Stebbins. Bemoaning how he is on the wagon despite offering Haverstock some scotch when the latter arrives, he looks longingly at it. "Twenty years and I end up on milk," Stebbins remarks. Benchley's presence is small, but he makes the most of his screentime. I do not know if Benchley or the other writers came up with something of a running gag in Foreign Correspondent where Haverstock kept losing his bowler. Once the film became more serious, the gag was dropped. However, seeing the very American Johnny Jones attempt to wear British hats brought a bit of lightness to things.

The highlights of Foreign Correspondent are the action scenes. The apparent assassination of Van Meer was excellently filmed. Haverstock chasing the assassin with a cacophony of black umbrellas covering everyone is a brilliant sequence. His narrow escape in the windmill is also well-filmed. The concluding action scene in the airplane is a thrilling sequence, the chaos and confusion mixed in with the awful randomness of death. 

Foreign Correspondent shows a group of actors doing fine work. The previously mentioned McCrae and Benchley had absolutely wonderful performances. George Sanders as the suave potential rival ffollitt made the blend of snide sarcasm with genuine concern for Van Meer work well. Herbert Marshall balanced the father's concern with a more dubious manner. Albert Basserman received one of the film's six Oscar nominations as Van Meer (it lost all six, including Best Picture). I think his final scene got him the recognition, his mix of confusion and defiance on his mental and emotional state being a strong performance.

In his small role, Edmund Gwynn as the hitman Rowley takes viewers by surprise. He made this Cockney killer into a dangerous figure behind the avuncular manner. 

I would say that Laraine Day as Carol was the weakest role. She was not terrible. Day was fine as Carol, the loving woman and dutiful daughter. I think it is less the actress than the part.

One thing that did surprise me in Foreign Correspondent is Alfred Newman's score. I found it, especially the opening music, very upbeat and jolly. Newman's opening music suggests that Foreign Correspondent is a romantic comedy rather than a thriller with some romance and humor in it. 

I also thought that at two hours, Foreign Correspondent ran a bit longer than needed. The various escapes and near-escapes were maybe one too many. I do not know if we needed to see Jones/Haverstock say goodbye to his family in his suite on the Queen Mary. I also think ending the film with a choir singing The Star-Spangled Banner might make modern audiences chuckle to outright laugh now. Foreign Correspondent did lay it on a bit thick in the "join the Allies" manner.

Overall, though, Foreign Correspondent worked well as an action picture with a bit of humor and romance. That is thanks to its director, writers and cast. It also is a bit of a time capsule on film meant to move audiences' minds as well as hearts. Granted, it is a bit dated today. However, Foreign Correspondent works on most of its levels. 

DECISION: B-